Just checked my chain guides, without pulling front cover

[ScottJackson]

I'll probably get flak for this, but I removed the 4 10mm bolts that hold on the fan, removed it, and then drilled a 1/4" hole in the front cover on the passenger side. Through this hole, with a mini flashlight and small mirror, I could see that my (formerly Chopp's) '93 Q has the newer chain guides, from the factory. It's build date is 1/93. Yes, I know some small aluminum shavings went into the oil pan, but when it came to that point of breaking through, I used very little pressure to ensure no larger flakes were made. Before starting the motor, I'm going to spray into the hole with carb cleaner and drain the oil (has gas in it anyway due to the recently bad MAF causing it to run way rich). Anyway, I'll hopefully get a picture of the location of the hole tomorrow if anyone feels like doing the same. I'll prob plug the hole with a small, very short bolt with some RTV on it.

[Jesda]

LOL, wow. Certainly a good way to save yourself grief on a $500 car!

[Skibane]

Eh, so you may have got a little aluminum in the oil pan...That's what the pickup screen and filter are there for!

[Q45tech]

This ranks above cutting a hole in floor pan to change the turbine sensor!

[maxnix]

Yeah, the thought of soft malleable aluminum floating around in my engine is so reassuring. True hillbilly engineering.

[DrewQ45]

Holding a vacuum's hose near the drill site might have helped reduce filings a bit. How did you cover the drill hole, duct tape?

[Q_SHIP]

This ranks above cutting a hole in floor pan to change the turbine sensor!

If/when I have to do mine, thats what I'm doing. I don't care. Cut it and weld it back in. Lay the carpet down and nobody will ever know.

[Q45denver]

Why not just look thru the tensioner ports?

[ScottJackson]

because you can only see the slack side guides thru those and it's the tension side ones that were updated

[Q45denver]

How about with a fiber optic scope?

[StarPD]

I'll probably get flak for this, but I removed the 4 10mm bolts that hold on the fan, removed it, and then drilled a 1/4" hole in the front cover on the passenger side. Through this hole, with a mini flashlight and small mirror, I could see that my (formerly Chopp's) '93 Q has the newer chain guides, from the factory. It's build date is 1/93. Yes, I know some small aluminum shavings went into the oil pan, but when it came to that point of breaking through, I used very little pressure to ensure no larger flakes were made. Before starting the motor, I'm going to spray into the hole with carb cleaner and drain the oil (has gas in it anyway due to the recently bad MAF causing it to run way rich). Anyway, I'll hopefully get a picture of the location of the hole tomorrow if anyone feels like doing the same. I'll prob plug the hole with a small, very short bolt with some RTV on it.

Do NOT spray ANY kind of solvent into a closed engine. Some will always remain and break down the oil, resulting in bearings and cams/lifters going bye-bye. Axe me how I know. Let the oil filter stop the shavings, or drop the oil pan if you are that concerned. It's better than having to drop the pan to replace bearings, then re-doing the valve train. In the process of destroying the bearings (and probably the crank), the metal debris caused by these parts sefl-destructing will also eat up the rest of the engine, so even replacing these parts won't keep the engine as new, and it won't have a very long life.

You saved some time on the chain guides. Now don't waste that time by ruining the engine.

[ScottJackson]

I would bet that the type of solvent matters quite a bit as far as what damage it will or won't do to the bearings. If all solvents were terrible, I doubt anyone would do the BG flush and have the engine last any time at all. That said, I just sprayed a 1-2 second burst of carb cleaner in there and then changed the oil. Now I gotta see if I can post the two pics of where the hole was drilled.

[ScottJackson]

The phillips screw head that's got grey RTV on it is where the hole was drilled. The old style guides will have plastic on only the water pump side of the chain. Newer guides have the thick plastic block on the non water pump side (toward outside of car) and also on water pump side. Kinda tricky to see, but can be done and it did work for me.

[louiegz]

Wow! I'm surprised you were able to see what you needed with such a small hole.

I'll probably get flak for this

Don't worry about some of the flak you get from some of the snobs in the forum. When you have a car that some of the repairs is more money than what the car is worth, sometime you have to cut corners, especially if the car cost you $500 like Jesda said.

[StarPD]

What bothers me is why carb cleaner would be needed to remove aluminum drill shavings. I'd think a light motor oil sprayed liberally into the hole would do as well to flush the particles out of the timing cover, where they would drop down into the pan and be stopped by the oil filter.

Heavy grease on the drill bit and very careful slow going with it would have minimized or even completely eliminated the trash that got ito the timing cover.

BG engine flush isn't the same as spraying carb cleaner into the oil supply at all. A friend of mine once used "Gunk" to clean a timing chain and we rinsed it off pretty thoroughly. It didn't take long for the engine to self-destruct. The bearings were completely destroyed, and the journals on the crank looked like they were threaded. Ever since, I'm wary of using anything to "flush" out the internals on a motor.

But that's just me. I hope in this instance, all turns out well.

[ScottJackson]

I do appreciate your concern, George, but I have never seen a mild application of solvent completely ruin a motor. A spray of oil probably would have done the trick and it would have likely been just fine with no cleaning efforts. Grease on drill bits helps for holes into materials of substantial thickness at a downward angle. Into a thin timing cover at a sideways angle, I doubt it'd have done much good. I always grease taps when doing any job like heli-coils for spark plug threads and such. As for your friend's motor that self-destructed, was the crankshaft thoroughly cleaned (including oil passages)? The stuff that the machine shops often fail to clean from the oiling holes will go straight onto the bearings and destroy them in no time. Was the clearances all checked and was the crank checked for straightness? Was the oil pump known to be good and did it have any pressure when running? There's a lot of ways for an engine to die, and sometimes it's hard to know just where to point the finger.

[StarPD]

I do appreciate your concern, George, but I have never seen a mild application of solvent completely ruin a motor. A spray of oil probably would have done the trick and it would have likely been just fine with no cleaning efforts. Grease on drill bits helps for holes into materials of substantial thickness at a downward angle. Into a thin timing cover at a sideways angle, I doubt it'd have done much good. I always grease taps when doing any job like heli-coils for spark plug threads and such. As for your friend's motor that self-destructed, was the crankshaft thoroughly cleaned (including oil passages)? The stuff that the machine shops often fail to clean from the oiling holes will go straight onto the bearings and destroy them in no time. Was the clearances all checked and was the crank checked for straightness? Was the oil pump known to be good and did it have any pressure when running? There's a lot of ways for an engine to die, and sometimes it's hard to know just where to point the finger.

Engine was in situ unopened except for timing cover. Enough "Gunk" migrated into the oil supply to destroy it's ability to lubricate. It didn't take much. That's what I'm concerned about with your Q, Scott.

I sincerely hope your engine is okay,and that you don't suffer any bad consquences. I strongly urge you to be anal about oil changes for a while, doing it frequently until you are satisfied that everything is okay, and in the meantime, avoiding heavy loads (hard acceleration) or high RPM

[StarPD]

I do appreciate your concern, George, but I have never seen a mild application of solvent completely ruin a motor. A spray of oil probably would have done the trick and it would have likely been just fine with no cleaning efforts. Grease on drill bits helps for holes into materials of substantial thickness at a downward angle. Into a thin timing cover at a sideways angle, I doubt it'd have done much good. I always grease taps when doing any job like heli-coils for spark plug threads and such. As for your friend's motor that self-destructed, was the crankshaft thoroughly cleaned (including oil passages)? The stuff that the machine shops often fail to clean from the oiling holes will go straight onto the bearings and destroy them in no time. Was the clearances all checked and was the crank checked for straightness? Was the oil pump known to be good and did it have any pressure when running? There's a lot of ways for an engine to die, and sometimes it's hard to know just where to point the finger.

Engine was in situ unopened except for timing cover. Enough "Gunk" migrated into the oil supply to destroy it's ability to lubricate. It didn't take much. That's what I'm concerned about with your Q, Scott.

I sincerely hope your engine is okay,and that you don't suffer any bad consquences. I strongly urge you to be anal about oil changes for a while, doing it frequently until you are satisfied that everything is okay, and in the meantime, avoiding heavy loads (hard acceleration) or high RPM

I do appreciate your concern, George, but I have never seen a mild application of solvent completely ruin a motor. A spray of oil probably would have done the trick and it would have likely been just fine with no cleaning efforts. Grease on drill bits helps for holes into materials of substantial thickness at a downward angle. Into a thin timing cover at a sideways angle, I doubt it'd have done much good. I always grease taps when doing any job like heli-coils for spark plug threads and such. As for your friend's motor that self-destructed, was the crankshaft thoroughly cleaned (including oil passages)? The stuff that the machine shops often fail to clean from the oiling holes will go straight onto the bearings and destroy them in no time. Was the clearances all checked and was the crank checked for straightness? Was the oil pump known to be good and did it have any pressure when running? There's a lot of ways for an engine to die, and sometimes it's hard to know just where to point the finger.

Engine was in situ and unopened except for timing cover. Enough "Gunk" migrated into the oil supply to destroy its ability to lubricate. It didn't take much.

I sincerely hope your Q is okay.

[texasoil]

This is an excellent and sound 'trick' any 'shavings' from the drill bit will be way to big to cause any problems. The screen and filter will easily remove them. Back when we had metal oil CANS, there were always metal flakes in th eoil filters (how many of you guys ever cut opan and inspected the oil filter for metal? Recip aircraft engines get that done every filter change-part of the inspection.

[RobertsnewQ]

LOL - you guys are STILL debating the 93 thing.

Let me set you straight (again): ALL 1993 Q45s (that would be any car with a production date between 7/92 and 2/93) HAVE THE LATER CHAIN GUIDES!!

No offence guys, but you don't have to drill any holes.

BUT that's a smart way to check - good idea.

[maxnix]

No, actually very few of the 1993 documented on this board have teh updated guides. In fact, for years, it was regarded as none, although now we know at least one or two did, or had them updated.

[RobertsnewQ]

C'mon Brian - I've been reading this board for two years and I have not read of a single 1993 (true 1993, not a 1992) with the early guides.

Also, if you have a friend at an Infiniti dealer they can look it up for you.

Have you ever noticed that certain very experienced people NEVER post on this topic?

Could it be that they know the answer but don't care to share?

[Q_SHIP]

How did you see in such a small hole?

[ScottJackson]

I could see both sides of the chain. I could see the side facing the outside of the block easier, but that's the important side to see because that's where there's a thick plastic block on the newer style guides which is absent with the old guides. I had to use a small 1.5"x3" mirror and small flash light to see in the hole.